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July 24, 2025, 11:59:16 pm

Author Topic: PhB(Arts) at ANU  (Read 20429 times)  Share 

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EvangelionZeta

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #15 on: December 17, 2009, 05:29:51 pm »
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What ARE the things they're looking for in PhB applicants?  Given that they say the minimum is 99 for ATAR on the website (although obv. Eriny shows that it isn't always necessary), would it be along the lines of "Look at ENTER first and most importantly, and then consider other achievements/referee reports etc."?
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Eriny

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #16 on: December 17, 2009, 06:52:25 pm »
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I guess I had other things. For instance, I did really well in UMEP (I topped it) and had really awesome referee reports. I guess they're really just looking for people who are likely to succeed in the programme and who are likely to make ANU look good.

It's definitely possible to choose your major as something you've never studied before. My majors are anthropology and philosophy, neither of which I learned in school. I'm not sure how a language major works in terms of research units, but I'm sure that something would be figured out.

With the research units - the first one is a seminar-based course with the rest of the first year cohort, which is nice because you meet all the people in the same situation as you, and they tend to turn up unexpectedly in many of your units as well. Anyway, it's a pretty good course, you're meant to reflect on issues surrounding different disciplines, postmodernism, an the nature of knowledge and academic research in relation to knowledge. There are also some practical elements, like how to write well. After that course, it's entirely up to you. It's good in a way, because it means that you will have done at least a semester of study in your chose discipline and should have a better grasp of it (and whether you still want to study it!), so that can help as well.

gimp6408

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #17 on: December 17, 2009, 07:57:57 pm »
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vc they dont care what you write, is seriously just enter-based, unless you were borderline (like 98)... but that will clearly not happen to you unless you like, get in a freak gasoline accident and then fail the gat. i dont think anyone was borderline in our year cause the 'lowest' got 99.35, so goodbye written piece. they also dont care about achievements or extra-curricular, or as you know, i would never ever have gotten in.

(btw i looked at the james lu thread like you told me to. lulzzzzzz. that is all. like james lu is mortal.
also, macrob came third. double lulzzzz. is what happens when im not there to terrorise the younger kids, obvs.)

back to being relevant, the 'seminar-based' course you do in first year is a) now a year long, and b) a waste of time - we learned what a paradigm was, and that was it. we did lots of philosophy stuff, apaz in eriny's year they got lots of anthro stuff because their lecturer was an anthro person. unfortunately for us, only like two people were interested in philosophy, hence we just doodled for two hours a week. the only good thing is you become friends, and eat lots of tim-tams. except for eriny's year, they never really became friends or so i hear. plus, our phb guy got diabetes so the tim-tams stopped too. the injustice never ends.

you can choose a major that youve never done before fo sho. i chose 3 majors that id never done before, two of them languages, and i did really well. i dont do them for the advanced studies courses (will do so in third year though), but i know someone did arabic and french as their majors a coupla years back and did them as their research course, so have a chat to larry and he will guide you. theres someone who is applying for phb next year from wa who is learning like six languages and intends to make at least three of them their majors from what i hear, starting some from scratch next year, so if they got in, you wont be alone. the phb coordinator said that they were like a child prodigy or something, whack.

(this is obvs my brothers account, i cant remember what my account name is, something about flowers)

jejak

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #18 on: December 21, 2009, 12:25:11 am »
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Thanks so much for the post above - very informative. Intrigued to hear that you can undertake a triple major - is this usual? - and that you can study a language, or languages, from scratch. If I decide to study more language-oriented subjects, I'm thinking French, German, and linguistics, with the last of these as my advanced studies course, at least until my French and German improve!

Also glad to hear that entry is primarily ENTER-based. But more importantly, who is this Larry that I need to speak to haha?
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ENTER: 99.65


Eriny

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #19 on: December 21, 2009, 12:38:53 am »
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Larry (or Lawrence) Saha basically organises the PhB programme. PhB kids have to see him at least once a semester and he helps to organise things like supervision and he asks what subjects we intend to do each semester and make sure we're meeting the HD average requirement.

jejak

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #20 on: December 21, 2009, 12:52:28 am »
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Ahh I see. Thanks a bunch Eriny.

Is there any leniency on that HD average requirement, particularly during first year? I was originally quite keen on PhB Arts but I'm beginning to doubt if I have the balls to make the move, especially with the possibility of being booted out into regular Arts. That, and the "freedom" to structure my own studies, is intimidating.
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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #21 on: December 21, 2009, 04:28:38 am »
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Isn't it harder to get a HD in the arts than in sciences? Do they balance that out somehow?

Eriny

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #22 on: December 21, 2009, 10:28:50 am »
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In science you have to get straight HDs, and in arts it's just an average. Also, I think if you do a non-science subject in science, then you don't need a HD for it. I think in first year it's much easier to get a HD in science than in arts, but I can't vouch for later year, I think some science subjects get much more difficult at that point.

And yes, they are pretty lenient in first year, I didn't get a HD average in first year. However, they do make it clear that you will get kicked out if you continue to not achieve the HD average (unless, of course, you have a good reason like illness, etc.).

humph

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #23 on: December 21, 2009, 11:41:35 am »
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Nah in science it's just an average too. And yeah, non-science subjects don't count towards your average (though I'm on the National Undergraduate Scholarship and you need a 70 average across all subjects to keep that).
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florallover

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #24 on: December 26, 2009, 12:15:46 am »
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no, triple major isnt common, you only have to do one. but theyre really flexible so you can do like whatever, but you have to do enough units in at least one to qualify for honours (eg mine is political science, i have to do at least 8 units, though they waived the two-subject first year requirement cause i refused to do intro to pols like the brat i am) i just like overloading and then whingeing about it. cool story hansel.

what eriny said. its not hard to get hd average but most didnt get it - lots had trouble with individual subjects, like getting 50s for essays (out of 100- its not the content, its just that sometimes you need a year to work out what they want), but they honestly dont care as long as youre not doing it for every subject. i think if your average wasnt close to 80 then they put you on probation.

the other thing is that most of the introductory subjects (defs not all though) are really stupid and boring and basic and people who dont know where the uk is get hds whereas some of the most brilliant phb people got 50s and 60s. phb understands this also. intro pol science and philosophy and english courses are apaz like this. dont let them get you down though.

'evangelionzeta' is asking me all these questions on facey chat, thought i might put them up to help people who arent him.
- overloading: how does it work, how much does it suck, if I do it will I kill myself
you can take on an extra subject from second semester first year. it doesnt really suck you just have to be organised or youll probs die of stress during end of sem exam periods, and then your parents will have to clean your disgustingly filthy room and feed your malnutritioned body a la moi. you will not kill yourself. i find that 5 subjects plus social life is fine, but if i tried to do extracurricular shit on top of that i would die. everyone has their own balance though, im pretty disorganised.

- do they let you overload if it's simply for the sake of doing random shit?
yeah pretty much, you should be able to "justify" it and you usually needed an hd average the year before but not always. theres some freak kid in erinys year whos done 6 subjects every sem and aced them. he got his first distinction last sem. larry the phb coordinator was like "hurr hurr, serves him right for pushing his limits". but back to the point, usually, yes. as above though, lots of people find overloading is way too much work.

- with those gay like seminar courses in 1st year do they change into something more exciting in later years of PhB or do you still just use them as like bonding opps?
the joint seminar thing doesnt exist, then thats where you go off and do your own little project/reading course/piggyback thing which is like the whole point of phb. 7 of the first year phbs did the same advanced studies course (thats what theyre called) last sem though so w/e.

- if you have "spares" do they let you like do whatevs? like say you only needed so many units for major/honours and you had a couple leftover for some reason can you use those units and do like some random shit, like wine tasting if this was UoM?
yes. they encourage this to an extent. the phb is designed to be flexible so you can pursue your interests, and dropping the two-majors requirement is meant to further this. however, almost all majors for honours have first-year requirements and a certain amount of units you have to do - some majors, like ir, also have compulsory courses - so youre encouraged to be aware of these so that you dont exclude yourself from honours later. in first year theres definitely room to play around and figure out what you do/dont like, but as you get further in i imagine youd have to be more specific. maybe eriny could comment on this better because ive been the most major-focused by far out of my own cohort and didnt play around at all.

-how many contact hours is each subject a week?
this is probs heading into the realm of general uni stuff and im sure its on another thread. it varies. 12-15 hours a week maybe? i think i had 13 in sem 1 and 15 (technically, really 13, dont think i ever went to an ir lecture) in sem 2.

- how much work do you actually need to do to maintain an HD average?
varies from person to person, will probs need to work more in first year than in later years cause youre still figuring out what they need. also, some people are brilliant. eg with the two people who do the same phb major as me in erinys year, one works incredibly consistently and one does all their essays literally the night before, and the two of them usually get around the same mark (hds of course).

- what's the point of Majors, like what differentiates them from being Minors, other than the fact that you know more?
again this is probs more general uni stuff. anu doesnt do minors. the way our first year phb coord explained it to me was that major is just a label, consisting of a parcel of different courses, and all that matters is that parcel delivers you into corresponding honours major. eg the subjects that fall under an anthropology major might be really diverse, but it doesnt matter, as long as it ticks the prerequisite-boxes and all adds up and gets you into anthro honours. his point was that realistically, all this stuff about labelling majors is totally irrelevant, its just an administrative thing.
i guess this is most evident with really broad majors, like development studies. a ridiculous amount of subjects can be counted towards development studies, so in doing them you dont necessarily know more about development studies per se, but it gets you where you need to be (honours, so you can head off and write your brilliant thesis about whatever youre interested in...)

ridic long post over and out.

Eriny

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #25 on: December 26, 2009, 01:36:02 am »
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With going outside your interest area: this can be kind of fun, but I kind of find that most of my interests fall within the disciplines I'm majoring in. There are some random courses you can do that look pretty interesting. Also, most lecturers are willing to waive the prerequisite requirements, all you have to do is send them an email.

Also something random about the PhB: the programme quite a few freaks who are really amazing academically (and all the while seem really friendly and modest and involved and all-round talented). They are a very annoying cohort to be around. The most annoying thing, I think, was in first semester when one girl kept going on and on about how she hasn't been doing her best and she was afraid of getting passes and credits and ended up getting straight high distinctions. I've also spoken to a few people who only got their first distinction within the last year (like the guy mentioned above, along with a few others) and they talk about disappointed and frustrated they were. Meanwhile, my transcript has many 'only' distinctions and I'm all like, 'yeah, distinctions are really disappointing'. In the end: Results that are actually really quite good make you feel as though its just kind of mediocre The first semester I got a HD average, I was like, 'yay, now I'm achieving what is considered to be a minimum expectation in my degree.' Talking about it to different people, some people think that it offers a great challenge and a good incentive to try and do your best, others think that it's a horrendous pressure, especially during the years where you're tackling uni life and dealing with new independence. Both are true, but after first year you do realise that the standard is there because you can actually meet it once you get used to your chosen disciplines and you pick the right subjects. I think the PhB has messed up the way I define academic achievement. It's also been terribly humbling to be amongst some really amazing people. I would recommend it to any high achiever interested in the arts, but especially so if they can keep it in perspective. The HD average is something I didn't worry about during high school, because I had somehow got this idea in my head that getting into the degree would be more difficult than actually doing it, but that actually seems absurd to me now.

That said, research units are way easier than what they sound. Sometimes I think they're easier than regular courses. Especially since, if you get a good supervisor, you can just keep re-submitting essays until they decide that it's very good.

humph

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #26 on: December 28, 2009, 07:08:05 am »
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Oh, and even among PhB kiddies, your ENTER score is no indication of how well you'll do at uni - I've had a friend get kicked out of PhB because his average was low 70s after two years, despite an ENTER of 99.70 (and he certainly studied a fair bit at uni), and my friend doing PhB arts got 99.85 but usually scrapes about a 75-80 each semester. And on the other hand, there are people who don't even get into PhB (I know one who "only" got an ENTER in the low 80s) but still get straight HDs.
On overloading, it's a good idea if (a) you want to graduate half a year early (not sure if you can do this in PhB arts, you can definitely do it in PhB science), or (b) you want to do some subjects outside of your degree area, but don't want to miss other important subjects - my friend did this with economics on top of his maths subjects for PhB science. But eventually he dropped economics because he didn't care about it as much and wanted to concentrate on the awesomeness that is pure maths. Again, he also found after 4 semesters of overloading (especially because he became a more social person) that he was finding it harder to balance up his time.
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Eriny

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #27 on: December 28, 2009, 10:47:01 am »
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You can definitely graduate early in PhB arts. That was actually my initial intention because I got credit for UMEP, and I've done extra units in the autumn and (soon) summer semester. If I do a full load next semester (and do the right subjects) I could go into honours second semester 2010. But I decided against it because:
- I don't think I'll be ready for honours that soon, especially if I need to get first class honours.
- I'd like to start a language.
- I can 'underload' which means that I'll have more time for my subjects and should therefore get nicer results. I'd also be able to focus on my extracurricular activities and get some extra experience from my job.
- Uni life is actually pretty good, I don't feel the need to rush it. Once I'm in the 'real world', I'm pretty much there until I retire.
- Even though I would save ~$5000 from not staying an extra semester, I would get an additional $2500 from my scholarship and money from my job (which I can only do as an ANU student), so the financial cost is reasonable, in my eyes.

jejak

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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #28 on: January 20, 2010, 10:08:40 pm »
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Hell yes, just got accepted into PhB  :coolsmiley:
2008: Biology |
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ENTER: 99.65


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Re: PhB(Arts) at ANU
« Reply #29 on: January 20, 2010, 10:09:21 pm »
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Congratz jejak!!
I got an offer too :)